Monday, October 13, 2014

Two comic book reviews this week for the Halloween season: Wytches and The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina

Review by Joe David Thompson
It's the Halloween season and
we all know what that means: all the Christmas stuff is finally on the
shelves of the local stores. But not too worry...comics still love you,
and this week brought us two new horror comics perfect for the season.

First
there's Wytches, out on Image Comics, featuring the Batman superstar
duo of writer, Scott Snyder, and artist, Jock. Wytches is the story of
the Rooks family, recently relocated to a new town in an effort to
escape a bullying tragedy that made daughter Sailor Rook famous. But
there are some things you just can't run from, as the Rooks family is
soon to discover.

Snyder
hits all the right horror tropes we've come to expect in this first
issue. There's the creepy woods with a house deep in them, weird
animals, and a mysterious figure slinking around. The centerpiece of
Wytches in the relationship betwen Sailor and her father, who has grown
more protective after the ordeal his daughter endured. Still, these
common story elements keep Wytches too anchored and it never soars in
the unexpected ways we've come to expect from Snyder.

Jock
once again proves his mettle, evoking all the emotions in Snyder's
characters during tense scenes. In other places, such as the
frightening cold open, Jock manages to elict chills.

Wytches
might get off to a slow start, but based on these interesting
characters and the hints of a the greater mythology, I think this series
has potential to get much better in the next few issues. The story
just needs some room to get up on its legs. It's also worth noting that
Wytches just inked a feature film deal.

With
the painful wait for the new issue of Afterlife with Archie still
ruining my life, there is something to fill the void. Afterlife writer
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa pulled the trigger on his Sabrina the Teenage
Witch reboot this week.

Titled
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Aguirre-Sacasa is joined by artist
Robert Hack to reimagine Sabrina's origin in full Lovecraftian
overdrive. This isn't the Sabrina from the pages of Afterlife, which
frees up the creative team to fuly explore darker themes, and this is
exactly what they do. The book nails the gothic tone, but never
sacrifices anytihng to do with the characters. Sabrina's aunts, Hilda
and Zelda, are here, of course, as is her familiar, salem, and
mischevious warlock cousin. But before you think it's all bleak horror,
Aguirre-Sacasa brings the same wit to these pages as he does on
Archie. Through it all, Robert Hack is more than up to the task of this
book's demands, and it's evident from page one.

Joe David Thompson has been doing media reviews for websites such as Red Carpet Crash and the 405 Music Blog. For any questions or comments for Joe David Thompson, you can email him at jovid52@me.com and follow him on twitter @jovid52